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Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter
Entry issued on November 29, 2019, from the forest just west of Tepakán; elev. ~9m (~30 ft), N21.053°, W89.052°; north-central Yucatán state, MÉXICO
CLAVARIADELPHUS TRUNCATUS MUSHROOM?
The morning after the last rain of our rainy seas -- when the ground was at its absolute peak of sogginess for the year -- the cauliflower-looking mushrooms shown below appeared along the trail through the rancho's regenerating woods:
Unlike many mushrooms, there were no spore-producing gills below their thick caps and, as my two fingers poking in from the side of the image indicate, the bodies were small:
In North America a similar or identical mushroom commonly occupies coniferous forests, even at fairly high elevations. That's CLAVARIADELPHUS TRUNCATUS, sometimes called Club Coral. Our location and habitat is profoundly different from northern coniferous forests, so I'm doubtful that it's the same species. However, mushrooms in our area are poorly known and I find no mention of closely related species in this mushroom's family, which I assume to be the Gomphaceae, so I'm posting it on the Internet as Clavariadelphus truncatus with a big question mark. I hope someone with more insight will come along and help.
Up north, mushroom fanciers consider Clavariadelphus truncatus as edible and sweet, plus it's said to be highly nutritive. Since the individuals in the picture are the only ones I've ever seen in the Yucatan, instead of eating them I'm letting them mature and beget spores.